The new IMSE generation is making waves! One of the first graduates from the IMSE Molecular Science and Engineering MRes, Victor Riesgo Gonzalez, is now working on a PhD in energy materials at Cambridge, and he’s published his first paper as first author.
Part of my job as Translation and Research Manager is to support the production of new IMSE briefing papers. Topics vary as widely as IMSE’s research themes, which cover sustainability, innovation and health and wellbeing. One of the current papers in preparation is on chemical additives in plastics. This really combines all three themes! So I’ve been exploring how the UK currently does chemicals regulation. It’s complicated… To find out more, I attended a meeting of the UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum last month.
It may sound like a cliché these days to hear people describe some new piece of technology as ‘next generation’. But here at IMSE, we’re working on the convergent science that underpins those kinds of technologies. And on our Master’s course, we’re training the people who will invent and develop these next generation technologies, and the manufacturing processes for them too. On 23rd June this year, we got to hear from our current cohort of 12 MRes students about progress on their research projects. It’s a great day for IMSE every year to see our students putting the IMSE approach into practice!
On 24th June, we had one of IMSE’s yearly Big Days: the annual lecture, supported by the gift of Dr Theo George Wilson. This year the speaker was Professor Sossina Haile of Northwestern University, who has pioneered the development of solid acid fuel cells.
Imperial College London is committed to sharing the wonder and excitement of the science that we do. So it is part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival every June, a two-day science and art party for all ages! In 2022, the theme was trailblazers. Imperial worked alongside some of the great museums and institutes in the Albertopolis to deliver talks, workshops, performances and activities. And of course IMSE was there as well!
It’s the little things that make the difference for climate change: very little things in this case. Can’t get much littler than needle and thread and lots of tiny stitches…
On Tuesday 10 May, IMSE staff Leah Adamson and Isabella von Holstein joined Ambrose Taylor of the Science and Engineering for Cultural Heritage (SERCH) network for a tour of the new Victoria and Albert Museum Conservation Science laboratory.
According to the UN, 2.4 billion people do not currently have access to basic clean water and sanitation, and each day, nearly 1,000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation-related diseases. Meanwhile, pollution from fertilizers, oil spills and human waste contaminate rivers, lakes and oceans. More than 80 percent of wastewater resulting from human activities is discharged into rivers or seas without any treatment to remove hazardous contaminants (Figure 1).
Given the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 of delivering access to water and sanitation for all, how can new materials be deployed to help? Pavani Cherukupally is working on developing low-cost sponges which can remove pollutants from water.
Digital twins are already being used in areas such as aircraft and automotive design. So what do they have to do with mental health? Can we make a digital model of a living molecular system?
For most physical illnesses, there are objective tests to determine what a patient’s issue is. Currently, diagnosis of mental health conditions is more subjective, as it relies on patient’s descriptions of their own symptoms. What if digital tools could identify biomarkers which were clearly linked to specific mental illnesses?